THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF
KEITH MALCOLM HUNT
I was now observing the correct 7th day of the week; I knew my attendance at the Baptist church had to come to an end.
I had my good friend Collin; I had to tell him the reason I would not be attending the Baptist church any more.
I explained how I grew up in the Bible from age 7. That I was taught we should all be observing the Ten Commandments; that I had been taught to memorize them as in Exodus 20 in the KJV Bible.
I fully believed Sunday was the 7th day of the week; all Christianity around me was observing Sunday, so I just took it for granted that Sunday was the 7th day of the week. And not one person ever told me differently.
As I knew now that Sunday was the 1st day of the week, I just could no longer observe Sunday, but I must now observe the true 7th day of the week.
I think Collin understood, he said very little….well can’t remember if he said anything. We shook hands and our friendship came to an end at that point; yet about 7 years later I did meet him again, can’t remember how it happened; I also met his wife, and they invited me over to their home for an evening. Collin told me about a young lady in that Baptist church when I was attending that I had somewhat of a crush on. I remember he told me to phone her and ask her out on a date. And I did so. She was old than I by 5 years; back then it was the custom that girls would marry a lad older than themselves. She was very nice but said, “Keith I’m 5 years older than you…..” So we never had a “date.”
She did find a nice man in that church and they were married.
Collin reminded me of that time and that young lady. He then went on to shock the socks off my feet. He said, “You remember…..[forgot her name now] and you had a crush on her; well if she had gone out with you, and if the two of you had got married, you would be a widower today. Only a few years after she was married, and you had left that church, she came down with cancer; it was a horrible cancer, very painful, and she died.”
I was just dumbfounded….. I was in shock…..I felt so sorry that it had happened to her.
After leaving that Baptist church it was time for me to find a full time job; a trade I could be happy doing.
I was looking in the Saskatoon paper under job opportunities—— there was one that read, “Looking for a young man with some shoe repair experience.” It was an ad from “The Council for Crippled Children and Adults.” I phoned the number and was granted an interview. I had learnt some shoe repairing in a Leather Factory after leaving High school; the very first job I had.
The day for the interview arrived; I was invited into the office; the fellow interviewer said, “Well it’s not shoe repair we are doing; come with me and I’ll show you.”
He led me down a hallway and into a room—— O my words…..my eyes opened up wide…..the interviewer whose name was Ed, said, “We here are making hand made shoes and boots for people with various foot problems from minor ones to feet that do not look much like feet.”
Ed told me it would be a 4 year apprenticeship and the pay scale I’d be on over those 4 years.
I told him I observed the 7th day Sabbath so could not work on Saturdays. He had no problem with that as it was a Monday to Friday work week.
I GOT THE JOB!
Wow…..what 4 years that was. Ted and another shoemaker by the name of Charles [he was an older man] , had come over from England to start up this shoe making section of this Council for the handicapped; they already had a “brace” and “limb” department, and they now needed to add an Orthopaedic shoe department.
Over those 4 years, I was taught to do everything from seeing the patient, taking if needed plaster casts, and everything right up to handing the patient their shoes or boots. I mean everything—— look at a pair of shoes and I was taught to do everything from A to Z on those shoes or boots. I designed them, patterned them, cut out the shoe uppers from different leathers, stitching them on a post-bed industrial sewing machine, lasting them on the last [all shoes and boots are put on a last as it is called; it’s the shape of the foot or shoe you are making] by hand; putting on the sole and heel, trimming it all up, and finishing as shoes are finished.
I was taught to make “build-ups”—— for people with a shortage in one leg. So it could be 1/4 inch to many inches. You carved it out of cork, light and strong. You covered it with leather, and you placed it on the shoe [the sole and heel of the shoe taken off] and added the sole and heel.
We did small jobs like someone needing just a leather wedge on their shoe/s to get the foot in the correct level for walking as normal as possible.
It was mainly Ed who taught me all these things over the 4 years. He had gone to Orthopaedic Shoe Making school in England. The last thing Ed taught me near the end of the 4th year was making a shoe last from a block of hard wood, say oak wood. Most of the time we had stock plastic lasts that we reshaped or added leather to make it like the problem foot of the patient—— you know like people with hammer toes, or deformed feet from the crippling type of arthritis.
Now you can see what I’m saying by going to my facebook—— go to facebook, type in Keith Hunt, Calgary. Then move down to my photo section and you’ll find the photos to show you exactly the trade of Orthopaedic Shoe Making.
We also did regular shoes/boots like in the stores, nothing wrong with the patients feet per se, but just large long feet, like most pro Basketball people will have. Yes when you look at those guys on the basketball-court, tall guys, very tall guys, you must remember for playing basketball that is great, but they have to have all clothes and footwear specially made; you cannot go into a store and find a shirt or pants or jacket to fit a 6 foot 8 inch man or someone yet taller still. They can’t go into a shoe store and buy a pair of shoes say for size 18 feet. Everything for those of extreme heights have to have everything custom made.
There was one more skill Ed had—— orthotics!
Many people today have to have shoe orthotics; as we live in a concrete world; walking and working on hard surfaces, it is natural that such floors damage our feet and the arch of our feet. Some people get “heel spurs” under the heels or the tendon that comes down the back of the heel and into the bottom of the foot, is strained somehow; they need orthotics also.
Ed was probably one one of the first to make orthotics in the Western world, and his was at that time, very inventive on his part. He had super success with plastic orthotics. He made them from a plastic that had strength but also some flexibility.
He took a plaster cast of the feet; he shaped them to some degree; he placed the plastic on a cloth into an oven, let it melt the plastic [that plastic he used changed color when hot enough], brought it our and quickly placed over the plaster cast and had a plastic bag over it; switched on the suction machine from the store that sold them, and let it be so for about 10 minutes.
Then of course came the finishing; cutting the plastic to fit the plaster cast, edges smoothed on the sand grinding wheels.
It was highly successful when you developed the skill for it.
Over a period of time Ed taught me to do all this and I did indeed get as skilled as he himself.
Ed was also, as far as we could determine, the first to ever make plastic face masks for hockey goal players.
One guy needing those plastic orthotics Ed made, said to him, “Could you make me a face mask with that plastic, as I’m a goal keeper?”
Ed said he thought he could. So he placed cloth over his face and put plaster bandages over the cloth, and from that impression made a plaster cast; melted the plastic over it with the suction machine—— bingo, you had a plastic face mask for the goal guy in a hockey game. It was quite something and did the job pretty well, until the big pro Hockey business started to make the masks that you see today.
I stayed on with that Council Company after my years of apprenticing for another six years.
I should tell you more about that Council for the Handicapped.
They were involved in many aspects of the handicapped. They had “shelter workshops” for those with moderate mental and physical handicaps. It is where I first met “down-syndrome” people; they were always so happy and pleasant. Not a care in the world to get un-happy about; always ready to give you a hug. Others with this or that physical problem—— they worked in the “pottery” workshop.
Then there was the section where parents brought their severe handicapped for the day; it was really a baby-sitting section.
The guitar had always been a big part of my life from age 11. I had learnt dozens of songs over the years, as instrumental solos, all by memory. On Fridays I would bring my guitar and small amplifier. At noon lunch I would spend about 1/2 hour in the Sheltered Workshop, playing all the songs I knew; and many of the people working there would get up and dance in their way of dancing, moving to the rhythm of the music; I was always a hit with them.
I would then go to the severely handicapped section, only about 6 or 7 there. I well remember this little crippled girl in body and mind, always looking like she was never there, with no reaction to what the staff were doing or any movements of anything. I would start playing a song on my guitar—— well this little girl’s eyes would open up wide, and a lovely smile would come on her face. As long as I played she would be with me, her mind, her eyes, her smile, she was thoroughly enjoying my music. It was heart-warming, but yet so sad, I wished I had the healing gift God gave to some in the first century apostolic church—— I wanted to say, “Little girl, be healed, get up and walk.”
Some day we will not have such sorrowful sicknesses, all handicaps, physical and mental will be gone. But that is for the age to come, when God’s Kingdom will be on this earth under the rulership of Christ Jesus.
O yes, nearly forgetting to share with you one more time that was a blessing to me and I guess especially to a young lady that was 14 years old, when she and her mother came to see if I could help them.
Forgotten her name but we will call have Jane. She was born with one short leg—— I mean short; it was perfectly formed, a nice good looking leg but a foot only came to her knee of the other normal length leg. Not sure how she managed over the years up to 14, I never asked. I remember she was a pretty girl, and now at age 14 very embarrassed about her short but perfectly nice looking leg. The young lady and her Mom were so hoping I could help.
I said I thought I could help her. I took a plaster cast of her ankle and foot of the short leg, with the foot in a down position, not like a ballerina up on her toes, kinda half down.
I would need to make a long, extra long cork stand for the top half; grinding the cork away with our tools we have for doing that, all by hand. I needed to make it that her foot would sit nicely in the form I was sculpting. I had the plaster cast of her foot is it was not too difficult. When all that was done I added more cork under it all to get the correct length, to match her normal leg. Then you add more cork on the bottom of that to make the shape that would fit into a regular shoe. It was all covered with leather. And where her foot would rest in the cork I covered with leather that went up about 4 inches above her ankle, with a tongue. Eyelets installed for lacing up real tight, giving support; like you buy ankle supports and knee supports.
It was all finished—— I was very pleased with what I had done; I knew it would work.
The day came—— the young lady and her Mom came into the shop. They had brought good everyday shoes, as I asked them to do. I slipped the shoe cork end into her shoe; she put her foot into the top part; I laced up the leather around her ankle and calf of her led—— she stood up and just about bust into tears; a great huge smile of relief from her mother—— it was all perfect—— the young lady could have kissed the ground I walked on. She could now wear a pant suit or slacks, and no one would ever know she had a very short leg.
That was one of my best rewarding works in the trade of Orthopaedic Shoe making.
I hope it has lasted all her life, of course some renewed leather at times, but hope it took her through life with happiness; I’m sure she will still remember me with fond happiness. Looking back at all those years in that trade, which I also did later in my life, after arriving in Calgary in 1998. It was a joy to see people walking away in their shoes or boots, or with orthotics, and big smiles on their face, just thanking me so much, and saying it was wonderful, and that they never felt better in a long long time.
The stories of all that would take another book; but I felt blessed I could help and serve people in their physical life from their ankle down. Most of us take for granted our feet; they are a remarkable invention by the Creator; 26 bones and two arches, the outside arch and the large inside arch.
That was a trade I used from time to time over my lifetime, which now, as I write this, is 78 years.
Now time to go back over those years in the context of my spiritual life with God, Christ, and the Bible.
That will be next.
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